Saturday, August 22, 2009

Light of the Church: St. Dominic's legacy

The UST-DOMNET Local Coordinating Council is first and foremost the advocate of the Dominican spirituality – passion for truth, and compassion for humanity, in the Thomasian community. As the feast of St. Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Dominican Order, comes into tide, the UST-DOMNET would like to lead the Thomasian community in honoring him by rendering an exhibition that features his life, passion, and legacy.

Santo Domingo de Guzman, a man of his own time, lived an exemplary life fashioned after the lives of the apostles. He became a beacon of light, emanating truth during the era when belief in God was dimmed and darkened by confusion and false teachings. In the present time, where there are instability in moral, political, and health concerns we can also be a beacon of light as a community and as a Church by reliving the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman.ObjectivesBy means of this exhibition the UST-DOMNET endeavors:· To introduce St. Dominic de Guzman to the new members of the Thomasian community,· To refresh the community’s knowledge of St. Dominic,· To put an emphasis to the importance if St. Dominic as the founder of the Order of Preachers to the Thomasian Community,· To rediscover the significance of his legacy, and through this, encourage the community to relieve St. Dominic’s ideals and adapt it in our own time, and· To invite the Thomasian community to live a life of prayer, study, fellowship, and apostolate.DescriptionThe exhibition has two major components – the textual contents and visuals.By means of the textual contents, there exhibition aims to present factual information about St. Dominic and his legacy in a fashion that will be more retentive in the memory of the viewers than the conventional way of presenting information. This will be executed in the form of anecdotes written by Dominican priests, brothers, sisters, and laities who are in the one way or another have a vantage point that may enlighten the viewers of the exhibit.The other major content are the visuals, composed of materials that are expressed in art – such as paintings, images, and photographs. These materials may facilitate further learning. Through giving short captions to these exhibit materials, the viewers may obtain important aspects about the exhibition that are not present in the textual content. For example, it may answer some questions that are not present in the textual content. For example, it may answer some questions regarding the iconography of St. Dominic; “Why is St. Dominic holding a lily?” “What is the significance of the star on his forehead?” and other inquiries like these. The visuals will be borrowed from Dominican institutions and devotees.